Dutch parade announcer ditched in favor of radio host

pussinboots · April 01, 2012, 10:01:58 PM

Local news! At long last, parades and shows will be announced in Dutch by a native speaker as opposed to that woman who, well, has given it her best shot this past decade. You might know Michiel Veenstra, a Dutch radio personality something or other, because he is very often among us and might very well be reading this, haha.

I wonder how he got his claws into this one?

It's an improvement, although you can tell he's from the Amsterdam area because he pronounces it "parate." He also sounds, well, like a radio jockey. But he is. And again, it beats that woman.

http://m.soundcloud.com/d-log/dlp-aanko ... en-michiel

JelleP · April 01, 2012, 10:08:18 PM

Michiel, if you read this: as a fan of both Disneyland Paris and 3FM, my visits to DLP will be even better!
Oh, and take Gerard and Tsjibbe on a trip to DLP ;-)

Michielv · April 03, 2012, 08:34:20 PM

Quote from: "pussinboots"might very well be reading this, haha.

You caught me redhanded

JelleP · April 03, 2012, 09:20:09 PM

Quote from: "Michielv"
Quote from: "pussinboots"might very well be reading this, haha.

You caught me redhanded

Haha, +1 :lol:
Question: how on Earth did you manage to get involved with this?

Michielv · April 03, 2012, 09:28:12 PM

Quote from: "JelleP"
Quote from: "Michielv"
Quote from: "pussinboots"might very well be reading this, haha.

You caught me redhanded
Haha, +1 :lol:
Question: how on Earth did you manage to get involved with this?

Really simple, actually. The Dutch Disneyland Paris office asked me. Which is awesome and amazing in it's own right, but that's pretty much all what happened.

Anthony · April 04, 2012, 06:31:36 PM

I'm honestly not saying this just because he's reading...

but it's definitely the best announcement of the lot now. So much warmer, happier, more "Disney"-sounding than the others, and I don't even speak Dutch. It actually sounds like we're being prepared for a Disney parade and not informed that our RER train is running late. Great job.

It's odd now, though, that the male and female voice read all the other announcements between them and then Michiel comes on, sounding so much happier. I can only hope they'll also change the other announcements too - and most importantly bring in a native English speaker again, preferably an American who sounds exactly like Mike Wagner, to give the park more warmth for English-speaking guests.

Michielv · April 05, 2012, 06:21:50 PM

Thanks Anthony. that's very nice of you!

Anthony · April 05, 2012, 07:29:01 PM

Here's another quick recording (at 0:36):

[youtube:11g2t6hn]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPtUjaOCvkI[/youtube:11g2t6hn]

Patrick89 · April 05, 2012, 07:32:42 PM

The German speaker sounds a little bit awkward, too...

15MagicalYears · April 05, 2012, 07:38:06 PM

Do you mean Jack Wagner, Anthony? I'd absolutely love to hear a voice like his throughout the Park, it definitely does sound a lot more magical than a French speaker attempting English.

DGRavenswood · April 05, 2012, 11:05:04 PM

Nope, he probably did mean Mike, Jack's son who was the English (and sometimes French) voice of Disneyland Paris for a good many years.

DGRavenswood · April 05, 2012, 11:13:16 PM

Quote from: "Patrick89"The German speaker sounds a little bit awkward, too...

All except the French do!

Yeah, I agree that the Dutch announcement is the best of the lot now and they'd better try to keep up with that.

15MagicalYears · April 05, 2012, 11:23:00 PM

Quote from: "DGRavenswood"Nope, he probably did mean Mike, Jack's son who was the English (and sometimes French) voice of Disneyland Paris for a good many years.

Interesting! I wasn't aware of Mike's work. Does anyone have any links to the original announcements with Mike's voice, before they started using the French announcer?

Patrick · April 06, 2012, 12:09:46 AM

I have to say the English announcer has always reminded me of the people who announce over intercoms in shops, this store will close in 5 minutes, thank you for shopping with us, in their dull monotone voice. He just sounds a bit conservatively dull, we do need a better, more up beat English announcer I do agree.

Also I believe this video shows the previous voice for English announcements at Disneyland Paris from 1995, now thinking of it isn't his announcement still used for Mickey's Winter Wonderland? Either way it does sound amazing compared to the current voice, so much more energy and excitement.

[youtube:4bqipwrq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzbE_N9zeuU&feature=related[/youtube:4bqipwrq]

DGRavenswood · April 06, 2012, 11:42:57 AM

Yes, Mickey's Winter Wonderland is an example that comes to mind where he did both the English and French spiels. I didn't get to listen to the video with a decent audio setup but it sounds like him as well. Here's some info and samples on the Sound of Magic site (bottom half): //http://www.soundofmagic.com/sounds/tributes/JW/jackwagner.htm